29 March 2015

At last. I've finally found the password and the way into this blog. I blame the new computer. We had a very busy day yesterday. In the morning Sally gave a whistle stop tour of the needles, threads, thimbles, fabrics, wadding recommended for quilting. She then demonstrated the rocking method used for the quilting stitch. So there we were thinking it was simple running stitch. How wrong we were and I, for one, will do some practising.

Apologies for the lack of pictures.

The afternoon talk was given by Helen Farrar, Curator of Textiles at Bradford College Textile Archive. She shared with us a snapshot in time, 1900, and brought with her some of the students workbooks from this period. Again no photographs but there is a website for the archive. Helen welcomes all visitors to the archive by appointment. A few of us, well, two to be precise were intrigued by her mention of the lappet machine. Internet searches since the talk have not revealed whether these machines were first made to produce a machine lace to make lappets or whether the word 'lappet' was once in common usage as 'a dangling thing'. Any thoughts on the subject readers?

Yesterday saw the end of round one of the Travelling Book trial challenge. Again no photographs but I can at least add photographs of mine returned.

 Barbara

 Beverley

Hilary, double page spread

Sheila

Sally

All participants took the theme of the first piece. Using pieces of 'intesting' purchases at venues such as the Knitting and Stitching show which have lurked in bags ever since. 

...and finally. This month was the Womersley Cup award for the subject 'Seasons'.  Won this year by Jan and her delightful French knots.

March Meeting 2014

Last Saturday's morning session was spent learning to make blanket stitch rings without metal rings

Close up of one of the more sparkly rings

Making the rings

This year, those who felt inclined, took on the challenge of making bonnets for prem babies. Above is the pattern and below some of the finished results

 

 

 

 

Another of the year's challenges is to make something from disposable wooden spoons. Interesting that there are so many ways of decorating these desert spoons. Below is the first entry, from our newest member, Sheila. Keep them coming in, the idea is to display them all at the Flower Show so we have a few months to make more.

  

Beverley brought in her work in progress, a whole flock of hens. It's encouraging when people expand on the ideas learned at the morning workshop. 

 The next few photographs are the work of Judy Tadman, our speaker for the afternoon. Judy gave us a potted autobiography and how her art work had evolved into rope sculptures. She then produced rope and rug wool and invited us to have a go ourselves. Hope people bring finished results next month. If you need to have another look at how Judy makes her sculptures there's a link to a video here. Go on, have a go.

And finally, the results of the Competition, subject Waterways. There were only two entries this year (shame on you all). Thank you Ruth and Judith. 

Apologies for the spacing on the blog this month, the computer seems to have a mind of its own! See you at the end of the month.

February Meeting 2014

Back by popular demand, Sally with her rotary cutters.

 Her talk was very informative, guiding the audience through the different sizes of cutters, rulers and cutting mats and pointing out the correct (avoiding injury) way to handle the blades.  She then went on to demonstrate how seemingly complicated patchwork patterns can be quite straightforward to construct and that there are even methods of machine stitching those shapes hitherto pieced by hand. Those who wanted to have a go with the tools were then supervised and there was even opportunity for the more clumsy or timid to use a protective glove.

I've always felt that blogs should be more pictures, less writing, but honestly (and apologies to Sally) how exciting can we make pictures of rotary cutters?

 No, not 16 tiny patches but rows of colour cut up and joined by machine.

 Is the curved handle (better grip for the more arthritic) taking a bite out of the pinking blade handle?

This photograph even includes a turntable cutting mat - not to be used for pizzas. If you're reading this Sally, I think better photographs could be organized, my fault. 

The afternoon talk was given by Sue Stone, a member of the 62 Group who lives in Grimsby. She described how the town, historically, had been involved in the fishing industry and how this had lead to her using images of fish in her work. Much of her recent work has been inspired by the works of fine and graffitti artists. Using the composition of artists such as Grant Wood she combines old family photographs and 'street images' to creative her very individual embroidered panels.

 Part of the self portrait based on Guadi's Barcelona - the whole piece can be seen on Sue's website.

 The companion piece to the self portrait, this one of Sue's husband.

 A detail from a panel based on graffitti

Graffiti combined with a photograph of four children in Sue's husband's collection - no one in the family knows who they are so we had a bit of a discussion at the end of the talk about whether they were the part of the family who emigrated to Canada or Australia. The signature fish are also included.

Another very enjoyable day.
Reminders for the members - don't forget to do something with the spoon!

January 2014

Happy New Year one and all.
January's morning stitch group had a go at applique chickens. The results are below.

 Hilary's work in progress.

 Judith's

 

 Jan's

 

Beverley's chicken and the book of poultry she brought with her. Sorry, I should have taken a photograph of the cockerel by himself.

And finally Sally's hen with attitude.

The afternoon talk was given by Alice Fox. 

She spoke mainly about her Spurn Point project and how she prepared the fabrics she displayed in the abandoned lighthouse on the point. I'm sorry I didn't take any photographs of her work, I think I was too busy looking at it.  I remember making rust marks on fabric a few years ago and wondering where to go with the finished product. Alice, on the other hand, had managed to link place with production. She showed photographs of the different textiles wrapped round rusting metal on the shore and how these were placed in the lighthouse. A really enjoyable afternoon, I do miss living on the East coast.

 So, apologies again for the lateness of blog entries but we're now up to date.

November 2013 part 2

Found them in with the Regional AGM photographs.

November's morning session was to make felt balls

 First the combed wool, felted into a flat piece, then felted into a Swiss Roll

 Small pieces were then cut off and felted into balls. These balls could also be cut in two to reveal spirals of colour.

In the afternoon we had a competition to make a name badge. The perennial problem of trying to get all the members to know each others names........ Will the badges turn up each month?

And by secret ballot, Sally was declared the winner.

The afternoon session was lead by Charlotte, one of our members, who demonstrated how to make a paper wallet. A useful skill to learn pre-Christmas. Hope everyone used the idea to wrap gift tokens in the festive season.

November 2013

Nearly there.

I know that the November meeting featured Charlotte's folders, and that I did take photographs, but at the moment I can't find them. Meanwhile, I did find the photograph above on the computer. An C18 cartoon on the ridiculous hairstyles of the day, but beautifully illustrating the contemporary dressing table and its drapes. Enjoy.

October 2013

Moving on swiftly, or I'll never catch up,

A busy month. Above are photographs of the tie back competition from the Regional AGM at Scarcroft. Last year each branch were given some tie backs and asked to make something out of them. The results were many and varied and Hilary's box, above in the second picture down, won the individual prize.

Below are examples of the birds finished in the two morning sessions in September and October, the bird in the tree doesn't stand out very well but a clue is that  its in the centre of the photograph. Hope they all enjoyed sitting in their Christmas trees.

 

The advantage of doing this blog retrospectively is that it gives chance to remind me of the really good speakers we had last year (though of course I could have just looked at the blog if it had been finished). This is Clare Lane's work, shown under the heading Urban Fabrics. I haven't taken photographs of her larger screen printed fabrics but have provided a link to her website to jog your memories.

Good, just two more months to catch up with.Don't forget, if you double click on one of the images they can be enlarged as a slide show.